Search and retrieval with accents (diacritic)

Though I'm quite strict with orthography, I think a search engine must be easy to use and should give all the intended results... and I say intended because not all the people know how to properly use accents in Spanish.

1. I think the search should ignore accents both in the search box and results.

As an example: if you search fémur or femur (incorrect)... it will give "fémur". And if you search fractura or fráctura (this is incorrect)... it will result "fractura".

You could also make a trigger/option available so the user could switch "accent exactitude" on or off.

2. I don't have an answer for this, as I think the search engine should be flexible on accents.

3. I don't think a meeting is required for this.

Regards,

Hi all,

1. We think it would be OK to have just one configuration for all spanish extensions, as far as we know there 's no more than one accent character for Spanish (´). It is totally necessary to have the search conducted without accent too), as even though it's a linguistic fault not to use an accent, in terms of usage it's a really common practice to browse terms without accent. We think correct spelling should be maintained for the retrieved answers though.
2. In Spanish we do not have folded characters, our only accent is considered as a completely different character. There's only one exception of a symbol called diéresis (ü), that goes over "u "letter, that may be considered as folded but it's used in really few words (ex. vergüenza)
3. We don't think a meeting is required for now, but thanks.

Uruguay NRCteam

Hi all,
In Argentina, we use snowstorm in the implementation and we have configured the service to be able to search with and without accent in the query, this was a demand from our users to have the same feature when using the browser.
1. We agree with the partners and believe that the search should ignore the accents and return the result anyway.
2. We don't have much to contribute to this point other than what Betania points out.
3. We do not consider a meeting necessary for this.

Argentina NRCteam

Hello everyone. I concur with all comments. Agree that browse would be configured with or without accents but should retrieve the accented term. Agree with Betania about diéresis. We must remember the letter ñ, which must be considered in searches and retrieval.

No need for a meeting.

Thank you for your quick responses! I really appreciate that we have a pretty global response as well - thank you! 

Okay outcomes - 

1 - On the SNOMED Browser, for Spanish versions, we should allow for searches to use or not use the diacritic (accent) AND the return terms with and without accents. 

2 - the following will be folded (or allowed) for Spanish versions:  á é ü ñ

Kai Kewleydo you need any additional information from the group for the update/fix ?  

Suzy Roy I am hearing that there are no special cases where the simpler form of a character should not match a diacritic character. To confirm my understanding I've included a table of some of the search use cases mentioned here. The table illustrates that regardless of the characters used in the SNOMED CT description term if the user inputs a simple search term with no accents the terms should be matched.

SNOMED CT Term	Search Term	Match
fráctura	fráctura
fráctura	fractura
vergüenza	vergüenza
vergüenza	verguenza
luxación de muñeca	luxación de muñeca
luxación de muñeca	luxacion de muneca

Could I get a confirmation of that please?

This means that all characters can be folded into their simpler form for the search index. (No characters not-folded).

Agree. Correct.

Great news! Thanks.